I was still agitated from Doru’s teasing when I woke up. I felt a breeze as Vincent opened his coffin to see me still lying there. He touched my shoulder to wake me up, but I shook his hand off and closed my eyes tightly. Becoming annoyed, he let the lid of the coffin drop with a thud and left me alone. By the time I finally decided to rise, it was midnight, and most of the other vampires were out.

Halfheartedly pushing the lid up, I sat up and stretched my cold, dead limbs. I felt a stare on my back, but did not feel like turning to face Vincent. I was feeling a bit bratty. After a few minutes of stretching my arms and legs out, I turned around to face him, and my breath caught in my throat.

The sight of Brandon leaning against the windowsill, where the window was thrown wide open and the curtains were drawn back, made me stumble backwards. I tripped over the side of the coffin and fell back onto the floor without much grace. He watched me curiously as I scrambled into a sitting position, and then stood up. I decided that it was his patience that made him such a perfect villain.

“I hope you don’t mind; I let myself in,” he said politely. “I expected you to be up hours ago. Apparently you enjoy sleeping in late. Where are your friends? Aren’t they frightened that I’ve contacted you and tried to steal you away? I thought security would be tighter, especially since you in particular are so valuable to them.”

“I—I don’t know,” I said nervously. “They’re...out.” I’d say anything to keep him from going to talk to them, even if it meant I had to deal with him alone.

He shook his head. “No, they’re not. They’re downstairs. I thought your senses were more acute than that. What I meant was, why would they leave their youngest treasure alone for even a moment?”

“I don’t know. Please go away.”

My nervousness was building, and I knew that if I let myself become too anxious, Vincent would sense it and come see what was wrong. I forced my emotions to get under control and checked to see that the door was closed, just in case anyone walked by.

“I decided I was wrong to leave you all alone in France when you had no idea where you were,” he said. His face, especially his eyes, seemed to hold the most sincere expression in the world. His voice was enchanting, and the way he stood so casually against the window was alluring. “Besides that, I knew that you’d either wander off all alone or come back here, having no other place to go.”

“I’m fine,” I said hurriedly. “Go. Get away.”

“Come with me again. Let’s explore Nepal. We’ll visit their child goddesses.”

My nails were digging into my palms, and I didn’t realize it until they broke the skin. “I promised Vincent I wouldn’t leave him again.”

Brandon’s eyes were suddenly alight with something else: curiosity—too much of it. “I know. I know that you couldn’t even if you tried. There is a bond between the two of you that you never felt until you left with me. It’s really very strong. Older vampires, including Dominik and Doru Angyal, can feel it when they’re around the two of you.”

Warily, I asked, “Do you know what it is?”

He grinned, appearing perfectly harmless and well-meaning despite his fangs. “You don’t?”

He was toying with me. I was not in the mood to play his game. Turning from him, I placed my hand on the handle of the door to leave. “I don’t care, and I’m going downstairs to tell them you’re here—”

“Wait,” he said eagerly, at my side in an instant. He put his hand over mine, taking it away from the door before dropping it. “I don’t really know much about those bonds. They’re not something that you see very often. But I know more than you do, and maybe we can share information.”

I hesitated. I was burning to know what he knew, but I did not want to share what I knew. He could, quite possibly, use it against me or Vincent. I swallowed, holding his gaze as steadily as I could. Then, slowly, I nodded.

“Excellent,” he said, smiling. He put his hand on the small of my back and led me to sit on top of Katalin’s closed coffin. He grabbed the candle that was beside it, which Katalin sometimes used to read her small-printed books once shut inside. Striking a match, he brought a flame to life. “To see your pretty face more clearly,” he said.

“What do you know about what’s happening between me and Vincent?” I said, unable to take my eyes off of him.

He smiled slowly. “Well. I know that you’re sleeping with him, that you want to leave the coven with him, that you both understand each other so perfectly it’s as if you were part of the same entity—”

“No,” I interjected, blushing brightly. “About the bond. Why am I feeling it all of a sudden? Vincent felt it more than a year ago.”

“That one is easy. I thought you would have picked up the pattern already. It is provoked by intense anguish. When you lost your mortal boyfriend and blamed yourself for his death, you were a miserable thing; and so he felt his connection to you, which began in the first place because he’d taken your blood. The ensuing emotional tie that formed was also necessary for the bond to happen.”

“But me,” I said selfishly. “Why am I feeling it?”

“When you left without saying a word, your sire felt utterly tormented by your absence. That was his misery, and it made you feel a need for him the way he felt a need for you.”

I chewed my lip thoughtfully. “What about Dominik and my mother, Ilona? Were they bonded this way?”

“Not exactly, from what I understand—not from what I’ve picked up from the thoughts of the vampires in this coven. I think that the only reason you can feel the bond is because Vincent gave you his blood when he turned you. Ilona never drank Dominik’s blood. Besides that, they didn’t love each other nearly as much as you and Vincent do.”

“But what about—”

“My turn,” said Brandon patiently.

My shoulders sank, not wanting to answer questions about it. It was like taking a class on the psychology of sex and having the professor ask you questions about how you personally had sex. I slid my hands under my thighs, staring at Brandon’s face, illuminated by the candlelight. I wondered why it was that younger mortals were the ones who usually became vampires—me, Brandon, Alida, Doru, Vincent, Samuel, Selena, Anton. Were older people too wise to let themselves become what we were? Did they kill themselves as soon as they were turned? Or were they simply not attractive to the undead? It was, after all, the naivety of youth that allowed us to become involved with vampires.

“How long can you be away from him? What do you think would happen to you if he died?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but closed it out of surprise. I cleared my throat and tugged gently at my hair.

“A couple of hours, I guess. Then one of us gives in and finds the other. I don’t know how he spent so much time away from me before I was turned. I have no idea what would happen if he died. Nothing, apparently, because Dominik seems fine without Ilona.”

Brandon tilted his head curiously. “You think that? You think Dominik seems alright?” I glanced up, meeting his eyes, but said nothing. “He’s more cynical than his son, if you can believe it,” said Brandon. “It’s just more subtle. He’s calmer about it. But think about this. I’ve learned much more about your history than you think. Dominik has done so much to try to ruin you and Vincent.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I snapped. “He hasn’t exactly been successful.”

“You mean to say that things haven’t changed since Dominik became so actively involved in your relationship with your sire? When he ordered Doru to bite you when you tried to leave, and Vincent could do nothing, didn’t your trust in him evaporate? And the night your boyfriend died, who was the one left responsible for your death? Dominik even made Vincent the one to make you a vampire, to do the thing both of you were most terrified of. You think Dominik hasn’t had an impact on you?”

There was a faint creak that we both heard suddenly. Frozen, we listened as footsteps sped up down the hallway. I realized instantly that it was Vincent. My dead heart had been pounding as I spoke and listened to Brandon, and Vincent had surely noticed my anxiety. In a moment, the door was flung open.

I was frozen. Should I go to him, or would he push me away? Even if he did, it looked much worse for me to remain there with Brandon. I jumped up and crossed the room, putting my hand on his arm and trying to say something. Before I got a word out, however, Vincent was no longer at my side. He had thrown himself at Brandon and had driven a fist into his face. Brandon grabbed his nose, from which blood was gushing, but there was a horrible grin on his face. That angelic, trustworthy quality vanished from his features.

There was a violent fight. After that first blow, most of the ensuing punches fell on Vincent, who of course was far too young to be a match for Brandon. I tried to stop them, but I was an insignificant gnat compared to them. Vincent pushed me away from them—though I didn’t know whether it was because he was angry or because he didn’t want me to be hurt—and I fell against Katalin’s coffin. The candle fell onto the floor, immediately igniting the carpeting.

I gasped and darted away from the rapidly mounting fire. Vincent and Brandon avoided the fire, but otherwise paid no attention to its threat against their lives. I darted to the door to go get Dominik or Doru, or someone who stood a chance against the eldest vampire. Just as I reached it, however, Brandon grabbed my arm and threw me away from it, slamming it closed.

“Stay here with us, Nikolett, your sire needs your moral support.”

Brandon’s momentary distraction gave Vincent a chance to grab him and slam him against the wall. I knew that I had to get out of there and get someone, anyone, to help before Vincent ended up dead. I tried to open the door, but it was as if it was glued shut. Brandon’s laughter told me that he held it closed telepathically. I watched in horror as Brandon grabbed Vincent by his shirt and threw him with an unbelievable force against the floor, where his skull slammed against the edge of my coffin.

I screamed. It was all I could think of doing. I didn’t realize how loud I’d been screaming, or how long, until Brandon smacked me to snap me out of it. I breathed heavily, unable to tear my eyes away from Vincent’s unconscious form. Then Brandon grabbed me around the waist and dragged me out of the room.

“No! You’re crazy, he’ll burn in there!” I shrieked, trying desperately to get away from him, needing to get Vincent out of that burning room.

“And you’ll burn with him if you try to get him out of there,” said Brandon viciously.

My efforts were futile. I could not break away from his iron grip on my waist. Downstairs, the house was nearly empty except for Samuel. He looked alarmed at the sight of me struggling against the unknown vampire. But he didn’t have enough sense to run. He stood there, frightened, as Brandon reached over and snapped his neck without breaking a sweat.

Tears streamed down my face as Brandon took me outside, several yards away from the mansion. I began sobbing when, as I collapsed onto the cold and dirty ground, I saw the entire third floor alight with flames. I attempted to break away from Brandon and go back inside, but he held me firmly.

There were sirens nearby. This was too much like the scene of Craig’s death. It was as if my brain could not bear consciousness, to relive it again. I felt blackness slip over me quickly, and Vincent came into my mind. I would have given anything to be burning alive beside him.

What made the aftermath of the disaster so much worse than what happened with Craig was that I really had no one to turn to. Craig was long gone. Kimmy had abandoned me; I was a traitor to humanity, after all. Jimmy and Greg were ignorant of the existence of vampires, and therefore could not comfort me. And now Vincent was gone. I hadn’t realized just how much I depended upon his existence until he no longer existed.

England. I sat at a café that gave me a view of Big Ben at around seven o’clock at night. A cup of coffee sat untouched before me. I had only ordered it because I missed the smell of it.

Finally, the person I’d been waiting for slid into the chair across from me. I slowly turned my head to meet his stare. He was the only person I had left, but there were many terrible memories associated with how he became so significant in my life. He reached over and covered my cold hand with his warm one sympathetically. He didn’t know all of the details, but he wouldn’t ask. He had met Vincent before and could offer some sincere condolences. It had been two weeks since the fire, but the pain within me hadn’t ceased.

“Thank you,” I said softly.

“How are you doing?” he asked, squeezing my fingers.

“I’m tired. And sad. And I know it was my fault. Both of them. They never would have died if they hadn’t known me.” He didn’t know anything about Craig, but that was irrelevant to both of us.

“Hey,” he said. I looked up from the table. Aidan’s blue eyes were concerned and caring. “I bet you that if there was one thing they could tell you, it would be that they would never have lived if they hadn’t known you.”

I forced a dry laugh. A couple of pink tears fell out of my eyes, and I had to wipe them away.

“Come on,” said Aidan, standing up. “Stay with me for a couple of days until you figure out what you’re going to do, alright? I’ll sleep on the couch.”

I stood up and followed him down the street, hands in my pockets. He rubbed my back comfortingly, and we made our way down to his flat.

Along the way, I felt their gazes. I had only been a vampire for a few weeks, yet I was famous among vampires due to the rumors spread by those from Dominik’s shattered coven. I’d felt like I was on display constantly for the past two weeks. Their stares were a perpetual reminder of what had happened.

One of these days, I thought, maybe someone will have the decency to set me on fire, too.